Economy in Brief

A softer housing market has lessened the workload of mortgage bankers. The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that their total mortgage market index declined 8.5% last week (-53.7% y/y), the third consecutive week of sharp decline. [...]

Natural gas prices moved lower last week to $5.98 per mmbtu but remained up sharply from prices twelve months ago. Yesterday, prices increased to $6.28 per mmbtu. The demand for all petroleum products increased 3.0% y/y last week. [...]

German GDP: German GDP was affirmed at a 1.5% annual rate gain in the fourth quarter. However Germany continues to have the same issues for which it has been criticized over the past year. One of the stronger components of German [...]

Consumer confidence, as measured by the Conference Board, fell to an index reading of 78.1 this month (+14.9% y/y) from January's 79.4, revised down from 80.7. The latest figure fell short of the Action Economics Consensus Forecast [...]

The U.S. House Price Index from the Federal Housing and Finance Agency (FHFA) improved by 0.8% during December and lifted prices during all of last year by 7.7%. That was the strongest rise since 2005. During the last twelve months [...]

The price for a gallon of regular gasoline increased to $3.44 (-9.0% y/y) last week, the third consecutive week of increase from the $3.29 low. Nevertheless, prices remained below the $3.78 per gallon peak reached in February of last [...]

The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas reported that its General Business Activity Index fell to 0.3 (SA) this month from 3.8 during January. It was the lowest level in nine months. Movement in the index components was mixed. The company [...]

Economic climate continued to improve in Germany through February. However, the survey by the Ifo shows some cracks in the solidity of German growth. The climate index increased to 14.9 in February from 13.7 in January. Improvement [...]